Digital Collections Blog

Delving into Student Publications

In May, we completed and ingested our largest group of material yet: series 1 of the Amherst College Student & Alumni Publications Collection. This sub-section of the collection contains many of the publications created by Amherst students during their time here at Amherst. Still to come from this collection are the majority of the student…Continue Reading Delving into Student Publications

Adventures with the Henry J. Van Lennep Collection

     In 2018 I worked closely with the Henry J. Van Lennep Collection, one of the collections that the Digital Programs department and Archives and Special Collections have selected for digitization for the upcoming Amherst College bicentennial. This chance to work with the Van Lennep collection was interesting and appealing to me for several…Continue Reading Adventures with the Henry J. Van Lennep Collection

Moratorium Photographs

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Amherst College’s Moratoria in the spring of 1969. As the library digitizes materials from our college archives, we are adding images that capture scenes from this momentous time at Amherst. These are part of the massive Amherst College Photographer Records series in the Amherst College Digital Collections. Photographs of…Continue Reading Moratorium Photographs

The Introduction of World War II to Amherst College

A European Sees American College Life publication header

Guest post by Campbell Hannan ’21 In September of 1939, then-President of Amherst, Stanley King opened his convocation address in Johnston Chapel with a somewhat ominous proclamation. “This year we open with Europe at war,” he said. “What effect that war will have on America no man can tell. But that it will affect America…Continue Reading The Introduction of World War II to Amherst College

What’s up with the Bicentennial Project?

Since we officially began the Bicentennial Project in August 2017, we’ve been busy! So, where are we now? Well, back when I wrote Choosing the Bicentennial Collections in February 2018 we had decided to attempt to digitize, describe, and make available in ACDC 23 collections, either in part or full. So far, we’ve prepared for…Continue Reading What’s up with the Bicentennial Project?

Side Effects

When I was thinking about what I wanted to write for this post, it occurred to me to talk about my interaction with the collections we have here, outside of my official role as a software developer.  In my role here, I’m responsible for the images and metadata getting ingested into our digital asset management…Continue Reading Side Effects

On Gleaning the College’s History Through Documents

1830 sophomore and junior class schedules

Guest post by Zehra Madhavan ’20 When I started working at Digital Collections as a Student Assistant during the spring semester of my freshman year, my understanding of Amherst College’s history was limited to facts I had read about in pamphlets and bits and pieces of information I had picked up in various lectures and…Continue Reading On Gleaning the College’s History Through Documents

No college is an island: Amherst College chooses Islandora

Behind the letters, images, photographs, and other treasures on display in Amherst College Digital Collections is software. To the public, this software is largely invisible, with our user interface showcasing the discovery and display of the digital objects from Archives and Special Collections. Our underlying software infrastructure requires ongoing maintenance, upkeep, and upgrade as technology…Continue Reading No college is an island: Amherst College chooses Islandora